Lombardy: Citizens Rebel Against Data Centers as $3 Billion Mega Facility Raises Concerns
Lombardy: Citizens Rebel Against Data Centers as $3 Billion Mega Facility Raises Concerns
About two hundred people gathered Saturday morning in front of the town hall of Lacchiarella, a municipality of 9,000 inhabitants in the Lower Milan area, to protest against the project for the largest data center in Italy. The protest was organized by the Comitato ciarlasco per la tutela del territorio, which has been contesting the authorization process for the facility signed by Apto, a multinational aiming to create a computing center as large as 30-32 football fields.
The project numbers justify the alarm. The structure will absorb a power of 300 MW, equivalent to the electricity needs of over 100,000 families and comparable, according to some estimates, to the consumption of the entire city of Bologna. The solar panels planned on the roof will cover less than 1% of the energy needs: for the rest, a new dedicated power plant will be required.
According to a study by physicist Sergio Manera from the University of Pavia, temperatures in the area could rise by up to 5°C in the immediate vicinity of the site and by 1-2°C up to several kilometers away. The committee has already filed dozens of technical observations to contest the assessments of the Ministry of the Environment, which has nonetheless already given the green light for construction.
Climate Risk and Questions About Seveso Regulation
In the event of a blackout, the facility would activate 160 emergency generators, which alone could emit greenhouse gases equivalent to 10% of the total emissions of Milan. To operate, those generators require diesel tanks up to 4.2 million liters in the original project, a quantity that exceeds the limits of the Seveso directive on industrial risk. The company has already downsized the tanks to meet the parameters, but other hazardous substances such as biocides, refrigerants, and battery electrolytes remain uncounted. Complicating the situation, a nearby pipeline has been identified with buffer zones that prohibit new constructions. The Superior Institute of Health has also called for the application of regulations, highlighting the risks to air quality in the Po Valley and the aquifer that feeds the Park of southern Milan.
Behind the €3 billion investment is the Pimco fund, controlled by the Allianz insurance group, which recently announced the cutting of 1,800 jobs in various countries, including Italy, to be replaced by artificial intelligence systems. The site in Lacchiarella is not an isolated case: in the same area, data centers are already active or planned in Siziano, Binasco, Vellezzo Bellini, Magenta, Rozzano, and Certosa, while in Zibido San Giacomo, just 500 meters away, a similarly sized data center will be built. The concentration, according to the committee, depends on the proximity of the submarine fiber optic cables BlueMed and 2Africa, which connect this side of the Mediterranean to the rest of the world.
In the "triangle" between Lacchiarella, Binasco, and Badile, about 700,000 square meters of new infrastructure are already planned, including power lines and electrical substations.
For Tommaso Gorini, a Green party councilor in Milan, a "real public direction" of interventions is needed: before building new lines to serve the data centers, he argues that Terna should renew the network serving homes and public services, which is currently suffering from recurring blackouts during peak heat. The new regional law in Lombardy only introduces caps on water consumption and increases on concession fees, while a draft law is being discussed in Parliament that would classify data centers as national strategic infrastructures, removing them from the jurisdiction of municipalities.